Viking Cruises was founded in 1997 by current CEO Torstein Hagen. Originally founded as Viking River Cruises, the company had 4 ships, but after acquiring KD River Cruises of Europe in 2000, the fleet totaled 26 vessels, making it the largest river cruise company in the world.
The company overhauled many of their ships, targeting older Americans who wanted to travel but weren’t necessarily interested in paying for luxury accommodations such as swimming pools and gymnasiums. Viking Cruises opened an office in California in 2003 and China in 2004.
In 2013, the company modified its name to Viking Cruises as it launched small oceangoing ships, christening 10 new ships in a single day.
Most of the ocean cruise ships are one-third smaller than typical cruise ships, which allows the company to dock in smaller ports, offering new cities and land trips for tourists. The company launched its newest vessel, Jupiter, in July 2019.
In March 2019, Viking Cruise ship Sky encountered engine trouble and headed into heavy Norweigean seas, tossing the 1300 passengers about and forcing them to be rescued via helicopter. The company says all passengers were given refunds and tickets for a new cruise of choice.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the founder of Viking Cruises, Torstein Hagen, has lost 66% of his wealth.
In August 2020, the company decided to cancel all cruises through December 2020 due to uncertainity regarding the coronavirus.
This policy was later updated to all cruises through 2021.
The company states that “Passengers booked on a canceled Viking cruise can either opt for a 125 percent Future Cruise Voucher or request a refund before Aug. 24, 2021.”
US headquarters for Viking are located in Woodland Hills, California.
Viking Cruises was founded in 1997 by current CEO Torstein Hagen. Originally founded as Viking River Cruises, the company had 4 ships, but after acquiring KD River Cruises of Europe in 2000, the fleet totaled 26 vessels, making it the largest river cruise company in the world.
The company overhauled many of their ships, targeting older Americans who wanted to travel but weren’t necessarily interested in paying for luxury accommodations such as swimming pools and gymnasiums. Viking Cruises opened an office in California in 2003 and China in 2004.
History
In 2013, the company modified its name to Viking Cruises as it launched small oceangoing ships, christening 10 new ships in a single day.
Most of the ocean cruise ships are one-third smaller than typical cruise ships, which allows the company to dock in smaller ports, offering new cities and land trips for tourists. The company launched its newest vessel, Jupiter, in July 2019.
In March 2019, Viking Cruise ship Sky encountered engine trouble and headed into heavy Norweigean seas, tossing the 1300 passengers about and forcing them to be rescued via helicopter. The company says all passengers were given refunds and tickets for a new cruise of choice.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the founder of Viking Cruises, Torstein Hagen, has lost 66% of his wealth.
In August 2020, the company decided to cancel all cruises through December 2020 due to uncertainity regarding the coronavirus.
This policy was later updated to all cruises through 2021.
The company states that “Passengers booked on a canceled Viking cruise can either opt for a 125 percent Future Cruise Voucher or request a refund before Aug. 24, 2021.”
US headquarters for Viking are located in Woodland Hills, California.
We have been frequent and loyal Viking travelers, with 6 cruises in the past 7 years. The crews. accommodations and on-board customer support ave been great and we are quick to recommend you to our friends.But this year we are we are disappointed and angered by the shore excursion planning for our upcoming “Komodo and Australian Coast” Cruise.
We have always had lower price cabins and therefore late access to sign up for shore excursions, but we have never had trouble scheduling a set of tours we liked. On this upcoming trip all the tours we liked were sold out a month before our sign-in day. At some ports ALL excursions were sold out, even the “included” excursions. (We are told that once on board we will be scheduled into the included Tours.)
Our primary interests in booking this cruise were the Great Barrier Reef and the rain forest and flora/fauna excursions, but none of those were available to us!
We do not want to board this ship with none of the shore excursions we want and only a vague hope that once on board somebody will cancel from a popular tour and we might get those seats.
I suspect many other passengers face the same dilemma we do, wondering if this trip will be worth cost. We believe you owe us a more complete range of choices before the cruise embarks in February or you should guarantee us access to at least the Great Barrier Reef and a rain forest excursion.
To whom it may concern :
Booked a 15 day river cruise on Mar 31 for July 27. Per Dayle Tillman Viking agent , no problem without passport if expedited that can be obtained in 4 to 6 week. You’ll have plenty of time. Booked me and companion, 1,000 deposit. Florence Patton ask Dayle will my brother and I still be on the same plane if one is premium seating and me regular. Dayle oh YES of course you will be on the same plane/ flight. At one point Dayle off so I called customer support,. they advise to put the old expired passbook ID / with made up expiration date. Then talk to supervisor and said don’t do what I just told you. Call on Monday Dayle can’t upload GIF without Passport info. Dayle Really. Call the following week Dayle why are we on different flight to different countries. I apologize I didn’t think that would happen, let me call air and get that straighten out. Dayle says you can rectify by paying for AIRplus switch and control flights. Which by the way after several days later and many conversations with Viking support . I find the Air Plus would not have worked for several reason and we may have had to pay 350 dollars every time this occurred per Fallon Stains who also called air. Friday April 28 spoke to Fallon Stains can I extend payment in full due date. No you cannot. I am concerned I need to get my passport and waiting. Finally reluctantly decided I should cancel at 9PM Friday. By the way you need to wait 30 days just for someone to take you application for a passport, than another 7 to 9 weeks if expedited. Don’t folks in the industry know this , should advise customers and not take money. I was very lucky after many phone calls library, Anex, Post office. I found someone that accepted us to come for photo/ application. on April 8 and congress office and myself calling all around, facebook etc. trying to get a passport elevated and or exact status. Received passport today Monday May 1 at noon. Only to find out this trip in less that 12 working hours minus the weekend will now cost over 3,000.00 more. This is very upsetting to say the least not even on the trip mis-informed , Ill- advised and frustrated and now I’m paying more money for all these issues. We’ve never sailed with Viking before and I thought they were a great company, now I’m not so sure. Customers should be your business. All we want is the same cruise we paid for at the same price – doesn’t that seem like the right and correct thing to do for your customer? I’ve reached out to many Viking folks for help , all have been sympathetic, very pleasant, but say their hands are tied and lack the authority to make it right hoping someone in the executive office can help turn this ship around.
We just returned from a river cruise. The ship and crew were very good. But the whole cruise could have been a complete disaster. I talked with people in tourist business. All say the same thing. The ships and crew seem to be good BUT THE CORPORATE OFFICE IS VERY VERY BAD.
We started to disembark, crew convinced us to stay and said they would help fix the problem. Which they did. But you could tell this had happened to the crew b fire
We were lied to by the corporate office or an employee pretending to be corporate.
We paid $16, 000 for the cruise we enjoyed it but only because the ship’s crew fixed the mess that corporate had created. The crew had to spend a lot of time helping us.
No more Viking trips for us. I do not think the company is completely reputable or at the very least they don’t treat their customers honestly. Integrity and creating trust in customers is important. This company plays games with their customers.
We are people who had a good experience on the ship, but will never return to Viking.
I have talked with several travel agents today. They are not booking on Viking.
I hope his gives you a better picture of what you are up against.
Good luck. They will smile; tell you what you want to hear
All the while lying to you. Understand this has probably happened so much they have gotten good at pulling one off ver on their customers.
I want to post a critical comment like yours but can’t see how to do it. Can you please let me know how to post something here?
Thanks.
My wife and I where gifted a rhine cruise.
The terrorist threat level in Germany was increased to level 2. As such we decided to postpone our trip. I called Viking cruise line and was told a reschedule was not possible because I was ONE DAY past the dead line to reschedule.
No exceptions could be made.
We lost the cruise as well as Airfares.
Thank you Viking Cruise
Obviously customer service is your number one concern.
Peter Oppenheimer
I am having the same issue with Viking , as many of you have expressed not
being able to get your money returned for a cruise that the company
canceled and now have health issues. Viking has had our money for two
years and we want our $9,085.84 back. No more vouchers !
I think it is time for us to unite and start a class action suit!
I was wondering if you got your money back. We are about to request our money back for similar reasons. You can contact me at garylazarus@ comcast.net
My friend and traveling companion booked the Greece to Venice trip for June of 2022. Unfortunately over the christmas holidays she had serious medical problems which forced us to cancel the June trip. LUCKILY, with all of the medical documentation, Viking refund all of our cruise money, EXCEPT for the $100 penalty fee due to the time frame of our cancellation. We have been trying since January to get TripMate to refund the $100 each penalty money. Even after repeated attempts to ask Viking to contact them to expedite the refunds, Viking has been unresponsive.
I think the only way to resolve these issues, is to post the non-cooperation on all types of social media. I have also written to our local news channel consumer helpline and she was able to get Lufthansa to refund our money – as Lufthansa cancelled our flights.
So my advise to all concerned – post it everywhere – sometimes bad publicity will affect their sales and maybe they will become more responsive. I plan on sending a letter directly to corporate also suggesting they contract with a more consumer friendly insurance carrier.
Thomas,
I am having the same problem. My situation is that my wife was diagnosed with an illness that prevents her from traveling outside the US. I even presented a doctor’s note stating this, and I got no satisfaction. I only wanted to have someone else take the cruise, but since they weren’t on the original request (by the way, I my the original request back in May 2018). Presently, I am dealing with Viking Management, more to follow. I’m scheduled to sail on Sept 22nd.
Hello Dominick,
May I ask who you are talking to in the management department at Viking? We we just on a Viking trip and where asked to leave when my husband contracted covid on the ship. We tested negative before we got there. I do not want a voucher to spend more money to get to the Passion Play! I cannot get any answers from them.
Thank you.
Same situation, and our refund was also denied. Please let me know if you pursue the suit.
My husband and I booked a cruise scheduled to leave in May 2020. It was cancelled due to Covid and we received information regarding a voucher or if we didn’t use the voucher we could get our money back. We booked a second trip, used the voucher and added more money. Again, cancelled because of Covid. They allowed us to re-use 2 vouchers and book yet again. This third trip we again added more money. My husband has developed health issues which prohibit us from traveling. I have asked to cancel the trip and get my funds back. I have literally spoken with 6 people in customer services and have gotten 3 different stories regarding getting our money back or NOT.
I am extremely disappointed with Viking and how they treat their returning customers and the promises that they made at the beginning of Covid regarding your money being safe with them and their 100% guarantee – which is not true at all!!
We are about to request our money back for similar reasons. Wondering how you fared. You can contact me at garylazarus@ comcast.net
In 2018 we paid for a cruise after scrimping and saving. The cruise was to sail from Greece to Venice. We were due to sail April 2020. We got our plane tickets then our cruise was cancelled due to Covid. The cruise line cancelled on us!
We rebooked our cruise after fighting to get the same deal as what we paid for originally. It was supposed to sail this April 2021. Again, after getting our plane tickets, the cruise was cancelled by the cruise line!
Only this time we can’t get the same cruise at all. We would have to pay a LOT more to get the same cruise another time – because they aren’t sailing yet and they keep raising their prices. If we decide we don’t want to sail (because at this point I don’t want to have to shell out more money when they’ve cancelled us twice and won’t give us the same exact cruise we paid for) we aren’t able to get our money back until next 2023 – over 5 years after paying for it!
I understand that prices rise, but we weren’t the ones who cancelled. I’m really frustrated and upset. They also refuse to let us talk to a manager to work it out. They refuse to help us and want us to pay more or hold onto our money for a long time. This is so unfair!
We’ve never sailed with Viking before and I thought they were a great company, now I’m not so sure. Customers should be your business. All we want is the same cruise we paid for at the same price – doesn’t that seem like the right and correct thing to do for your customers? It’s not our fault Viking cancelled our cruise twice, but they want us to pay for it.
We are about to request money back from Viking for similar reasons, wondering how your fared. Please contact me.
I want to share my sad and bad experience with Viking. We purchased a honeymoon river cruise in 2019 for July 2020 for $9,549.00 paid in full. We had to postpone/reschedule for July 2021 due to COVID. Our wedding was also postponed due to COVID. We never cancelled our booking. We were told that there would be no penalties due to the COVID situation and that everything would be transferred over in a voucher form. I recently inquired about cancelling our trip due to our engagement ending; when i received my letter confirming the cancellation, it was $3000.00 less than what we paid plus the $200 penalty for cancelling. I was told by Joanne Gonsalves your lead customer service specialist that it was due to a 35% penalty fee for cancelling our booking for July 2020. But we did not cancel and we were never told about a 35% penalty fee. This is very disheartening considering we had no choice due to a global pandemic and Europe is still restricting travel from the USA. I have emailed Joanne twice about how unfair and down right wrong of Viking to be taking thousands of dollars from people because of rescheduling. I don’t care about the $200 penalty for cancelling recently, I want my $3000 back from the original booking! I hope that Viking Cruises will care enough about their customer’s to see that a global pandemic and the fact that many people are unemployed and suffering financially to be charging them a 35% penalty fee is a bit ridiculous.
I want to share the bad experience we had with your company. I am the first time customer and booked a Viking cruise in Aug 2019. I made the full payment at the time of my booking. Before I could enjoy the cruise in this coming May 2020, COVID-19 hit the world. I am 82 years old and are at high risk. My family, my friends, and even the Government highly recommended not taking the cruise during this pandemic crisis. We, therefore, called the customer service at the beginning of March and see whether my cruise was going to be canceled or not. The representative told my daughter over the phone that there was no plan to cancel the cruise. I understand that there was a cancellation policy in which I could get at least a 50% refund back before the due date. I don’t want to delay because I couldn’t afford to lose all my payments.
I decided to cancel the trip and send an email to my travel agent on March 5, 2020, and my travel agent sent a cancellation email request to Viking on March 9, 2020. In April, I got the 50% refund and the cruise voucher for future booking in 2 years. My friends told me that they got a full refund and I also read the news as follows. Today I called Viking customer relationship for a full refund instead of 50% and the reply was very frustrated and disappointed. The lady we talked to was with a very bad and poor attitude. The gentleman Ross at ext 8779 was very nice and kind. Both of them denied my request. I tried to explain to them that the reason for my cancelation was because of the COVID-19 but not for any other reasons. This is unfair to me because before I canceled the cruise, I called your office a day earlier and I was told that there was no plan to cancel the trip. Unexpectedly, a week later your company decided to cancel the trip because of the pandemic and sent a full refund to the customers. If I cannot get a full refund, I would definitely make a complaint to the Department of Consumer Affairs.
As of March 11, Viking River Cruises is temporarily suspending operations of all cruises taking place between March 12 and June 30. Guests whose cruise is suspended in this window will be offered a future cruise voucher worth 125% of the amount paid or a refund equal to the amount paid. Guests have 24 months to use the cruise voucher, but if they are unable to, Viking will send an automatic refund.
I booked a river cruise with Viking on the 11th of February gave them a 500.00 deposit on the 12th and by the 13th had lost 300.00 dollars of it. How you ask well I purchased their air plus and was given a flight giving me 55 minutes to get off the plane in AMSTERDAM get through customs and make it to my connecting flight. When I called to ask for a different flight the agent was very short with me and rude. Then she gave me flights starting with Delta, then transferring to American airlines , and then to another air line to get to our final destination . The whole purpose for purchasing and paying extra for the air plus is to get the best flights. If these where the best what where the worst like. So I called them back to ask how much of my deposit I would get back if I canceled and I was told 10% at first but when he realized I had not paid in full he told me 100.00 per person but when my travel agent called them to do so they told her I had to pay 300.00 dollars. That’s an awful lot for doing absolutely nothing for me and only having my deposit for not even 24 hours. Lesson learned never cruise with Viking they are a nice as can be until they get your money but then you do not matter at all. As for Viking I think they need to train their employees better. As for the money I guess Viking needs it more the I do witch does not say much for the company.
How can you post to this site? Not happy with Viking
I am very upset. We booked a suite on a Viking Cruise to Holland and Brussels. The corona virus hit. I am high risk and the CDC said no traveling on cruise ships. I called Viking and said I need to cancel. They said I only had the option of a voucher or I could rebook my trip for next year. On the voucher some of my payment for trip insurance would not count. I said okay put me down for the same trip a year from now. Two dats later my traveling group who were going on the same trip got an email that there trip would be totally refunded. I called them right back and requested the same courtesy. I was told that since I had already rebooked that refund option could not be given to me. So furious since I did not have option number 3 like the others. Someone out there should be able to fix this. They had payment in full for almost a year and now they want to keep my money for another year. Horrible!
They now keep your full payment for 18 months…for trips booked for October 2021
We booked a River cruise to China is Sept 2020 with the outbreak of the new coronavirus my wife and I canceled our trip about a week ago. Now the trip isn’t until Sept 2020 but Viking still kept $200.00 of our $500.00 deposit. We have cruised on Viking many times and had a wonderful time but this will be the last. It is very obvious to us that Viking management has no common sense what so ever. I was told we tied up that spot and they couldn’t sell it? Who in their right mind would go to a country with a health crisis in full swing with people dying all around you, what senior citizen would want to go to a country on a cruise to catch a terrible virus and die on vacation. So I guess a $200.00 deposit is cheaper then the Coronavirus and dying? or is Viking’s greed and lack of common sense that gets my blood boiling. Keep your cruise we will spend our money else were! Please stop sending all your advertisement to my mail box or I will have to charge you $200.00 in rent for placing your booklets in my box!! I hope that $200.00 was worth losing two long and faithful customers. OPP DIN!!!
We also booked and fully paid for the China trip for April, 2020, approximately $25,000. Viking has not yet agreed to either refund our money or switch us to another Trip. Viking says it will advise us of their decision next week. Let’s hope that they do the right thing and avoid the destruction of their reputation in national class action litigation. We will report back next week.
I to purchase a long ship Rhine get way in early 2019.. Viking has since come out with new promotion for the same cruise..at 1, 000 each less.
Viking won’t won’t honor the new promotion…very poor business pratice. I will keep this in mind when purchasing another cruise, I’m sure it will be with another cruise line. Viking isn’t the cruise on town.
I made the mistake of requesting a catalog maybe 50 years ago, and since then, I have been harassed all these years with unwanted and unsolicited catalogs. I have contacted your customer service countless times to stop killing trees, and polluting oceans, and killing whales in the interest of your profits. I have yet to receive a reply acknowledging my request. Just continual junkmailers from you. I have no intentions of ever cruising with you…. I think you are a souless corporate entity and I want you to stop all contact with me….What is so hard to understand here? Again, take all of my contact information off your lists….
I booked the Romantic Danube Cruise from Budapest to Nuremberg back in September, 2019..
and paid for two(2) passengers. Viking recently introduced a new promotion and a new REDUCED price
for this cruise…a Savings of $ 1300. After several telephone calls and emails, Viking will not consider
refunding me the $ 1300 Savings….give me a discount on future travel, or even upgrade me to a nicer room. I consider this to be very unfair and unreasonable and a bad business practice.
Why book early on Viking, pay a higher rate…especially when in many cases, there is a substantial reduced later rate?
Gave a “good faith deposit to Viking for a May 2020 cruise. Never told that it was “non-refundable”; how-
ever it is not being credited (-) from the itinerary balance. Agents actually trying to convince me it
was “applied”. It was only noted as a payment received by Viking! Sad
Please be courteous enough after several requests to eliminate all emails to
my address and refrain from any mailings.
PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE: robertross13@ yahoo.com